1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging processing apparatus for dividing images into a plurality of images by using a graph cut technique, an image processing program, and an operation method of the image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the minimization of energy by using a minimum cut (graph cut) algorithm of a graph has been actively applied to image processing. Specifically, efficient solutions for the problems of segmenting images (dividing regions), from the view point of minimizing energy, have been proposed.
The graph cut techniques have developed based on second-order energy depending on two variables. Meanwhile Kolmogorov et. al. have proposed a method of minimizing a submodular third-order energy depending on three variables (Non-Patent Document 1 (V. Kolmogorov and R. Zabih, “What energy functions can be minimized via Graph Cuts?”, IEEE PAMI, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 147-159, 2004)).
Further, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-287091) has proposed a method of calculating approximate solutions of a high-order energy function by converting the high-order energy function into second-order energy, to obtain resolutions for high-order energy functions of the fourth-order or greater.